This disclosure relates generally to the secure automated exchange, management, and processing of documents, and more particularly to a system and method for providing a secure, hard copy, facsimile confirmation page.
In many networked environments, a potentially large number of users or clients must share resources including input/output devices such as the network's printer(s), facsimile devices, and fax capable printers. Conventionally, a fax capable printer prints out a fax transmission confirmation page upon the successful or unsuccessful transmission of the fax job. Even though printing a fax transmission report page provides adequate feedback to a user, it is often inefficient and inconvenient. Depending upon network/telephone traffic, the number of attempts that are made by the machine to fax, and other parameters that the operator does not control, the confirmation page may be printed out long after the operator has left the device. Thus the sender may not be present when the confirmation page is finally printed. In addition, printing a fax transmission report page can result in several management issues, including the issue of confidentiality. The fax transmission confirmation page typically consists of various kinds of information about the faxed job, including a reduced sample image of the first page of the faxed document. The sample image on the confirmation page may contain private or confidential information that the user would prefer not to be available to others who use the machine.
For example, some employee benefit service providers, like flexible medical spending account managers, require employees to fax paperwork to them without a cover sheet. If a fax transmission report page prints the first page of a flexible spending account form, it can expose highly confidential information such as an employee's social security number, full name, home address, date of birth, and signed signature, which could be used to commit identity theft.
To address this problem, it would be useful to have a fax security feature that permits a user to instruct a fax capable device to store the confirmation page until the user releases it with a passcode and an instruction to print the confirmation page. Such functionality could be provided through a graphical user interface or a combination of a user interface and a display.
All U.S. patents and published U.S. patent applications cited herein are fully incorporated by reference. The following patents or publications are noted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,665 to Ogata (“Facsimile Apparatus”) describes a facsimile apparatus connected to an ISDN and having a confirmation function by which an addressor is capable of confirming whether data transmitted by the addressor have reached the addressee with certainty. The apparatus on the transmitting side adds transmission management information to the transmission data and sends both the data and the additional information to an apparatus on the receiving side. Based on the received transmission management information, the apparatus on the receiving side responds by sending information indicating that it has assuredly received the data back to the apparatus on the transmitting side. Thus, transmission of the data is performed with assurance by exchange of management information between the apparatus on the transmitting and receiving sides. Also disclosed is a facsimile apparatus having a function in which a password on the receiving side is provided so that a specific individual can confirm certain receipt of data.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,766 to Kocher (“Apparatus and Method for Confirming, Timestamping, and Archiving Printer and Telecopier Transmissions”) describes an apparatus and method for confirming, timestamping, and archiving documents using telecopiers (e.g., facsimile machines). User sends a document to a timestamping service via facsimile, which archives the transmission with a timestamp. A submission receipt, containing size-reduced images of the submission and a document identification value (DIV), is prepared and sent to the sender. The DIV can later be submitted to the timestamping service to obtain verification that the document was received at the indicated time. In addition, the invention allows for various other forms of document transmission, document identification, and timestamp verification. Senders of facsimile and telecopier transmissions are provided with confirmation that their transmissions were received successfully.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,054,039 to Burke (“Fax Confirmation Device”) describes a method and apparatus for placing an indelible mark on each page of a document which has been sent by Fax. The sender's Fax machine applies a clear/transparent chemical or ink message on the surface of the document which contains information such as the Fax machine identification number, telephone number of the FAX recipient, and the time and date of the Fax transmission. The information is printed and is invisible to the naked eye, but becomes visible underneath a low voltage UV light. The light is placed above the tray in which completed faxes are temporarily stored to make the mark visible to the operator to assure that each page of the document was separately sent. A separate pen light allows a sender or management person to confirm that a document has been properly and completely transmitted. The disclosed embodiments provide examples of improved solutions to the problems noted in the above Background discussion and the art cited therein. There is shown in these examples an improved method for providing a secure fax confirmation page from a facsimile capable device having a user interface. The method includes receiving documents, in the form of a fax job, to be transmitted by the facsimile capable device. After receipt of a recipient's fax number, a determination is made as to whether secure fax confirmation has been selected from the user interface. A passcode is received prior to scanning of the documents. The interface displays a fax job list, which identifies whether a secure fax confirmation page is associated with individual fax jobs. Upon selection of a confirmation page by the operator, the facsimile capable device prints a secure fax confirmation page.
In an alternate embodiment there is disclosed a system for providing a secure fax confirmation page from a facsimile capable device having a user interface which presents the services available from the facsimile capable device. The system includes means for receiving documents (a fax job) to be transmitted by the facsimile capable device. The graphical user interface accepts a recipient's fax number, which may be in the form of a telephone number associated with the remote destination to which the fax job is to be sent, an email address, or an electronic address. The system determines whether secure fax confirmation has been selected by the operator and requests a passcode prior to scanning of the documents. A fax job list, which identifies whether a secure fax confirmation page is associated with individual fax jobs is presented. After a confirmation page selection has been made, the secure fax confirmation page is printed.
In yet another embodiment there is disclosed a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium which, when the program code is executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform method steps for providing a secure fax confirmation page from a facsimile capable device having a user interface which presents the services available from the facsimile capable device. The method includes receiving documents, in the form of a fax job, to be transmitted by the facsimile capable device. After receipt of a recipient's fax number, a determination is made as to whether secure fax confirmation has been selected from the user interface. The recipient's fax number may be in the form of a telephone number associated with the remote destination to which the fax job is to be sent, an email address, or an electronic address. A passcode is received prior to scanning of the documents. The interface displays a fax job list, which identifies whether a secure fax confirmation page is associated with individual fax jobs. Upon selection of a confirmation page by the operator, the facsimile capable device prints a secure fax confirmation page.